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Telecom Venture
Set to Test Service
Of Wireless, Cable

By

Peter Grant

Updated April 10, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

A venture of
Sprint Nextel
Corp. and four of the country's largest cable operators has chosen seven markets for pilot launches of a wireless service that the firms say eventually will offer more television and Internet options than competitors.

Starting in the second half, the venture will begin offering a combined wireless and cable service in two
Time Warner
Inc. cable markets, Austin, Texas, and Raleigh, N.C., and two
Comcast Corp.
systems, Portland, Ore., and a New England city that Comcast declined to identify for competitive reasons. Likewise, the two other cable partners in the venture, Cox Communications Inc. and Advance/Newhouse Communications Inc., declined to identify their first markets.

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Cable operators are scrambling to offer cellphone service in a battle with telephone companies over which can offer consumers the best packages of phone, TV, wireless and high-speed Internet services. Until now, phone companies have dominated wireless while cable operators have led in television, but both sides are trying to neutralize their competitors' advantages.

Sprint and cable executives say their cellphone service will be superior because it will give cellphone users access to a wide range of TV and broadband features they get from their cable companies. For example, when the venture was announced late last year, they described a future in which customers would be able to watch shows they recorded on their home digital video recorders on their handsets.

"Simply adding cellphone service to our bundle is probably not all that interesting for consumers," Glenn Britt, chief executive of Time Warner's cable unit, said last week in a speech at a telecommunications gathering.

Initially, the new features provided by the venture won't be that sexy. For example, cable subscribers who take the wireless service will be able to call up their cable-TV program guide to see show listings for that day. They also will be able to use that guide, which will look like the one on their TV sets at home, to watch Sprint's menu of video clips with a few others added by the cable operator.

Early customers also will be able to talk at no charge between their cellphone and home phone if they also buy basic phone service from their cable operator. The voice mail on the two phones will be integrated and, if the customers also take high-speed Internet service from their cable company, they will be able to check their email from their cellphones.

John Garcia, president of the venture, says it will offer more advanced features after it is confident it gets the basic cellphone service to work. "The worst thing we could do is offer a service that's less than what consumers receive today," he says.

Mr. Garcia declined to predict when the venture would launch service beyond the initial pilot programs. Others involved in the effort, however, said it probably would happen toward the end of the year.

One of the next features that will be added will likely be the ability for users to program their home digital video recorder from their cellphone. The venture also is working on offering a handset that will work as a wireless phone outside and through a cable connection at home.

Executives say they haven't yet decided what brand name the new service will carry or how much it will cost.